Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

nkoda – egalitarian sheet music

Reader writer tested Aida for singing in this fall's opera

Aida page from nkoda
Aida page from nkoda

While I generally embrace digital technology, I don’t consider myself to be an app guy. I don’t follow the top app charts in the App Store or play any games on my phone or iPad. I’ll admit to having played some Clash of Clans back in 2016 when my then 10-year-old son was into it.

I have my app habits such as Spoify, YouTube, social media — you know, the standards. However, last week I came across an app which I might end up using daily, depending on my musical practice habits.

The app is called nkoda (no upper case “n”) and it is, for lack of a better description, the Netflix or Spotify of sheet music. The London-based startup was founded in June of 2018 and has licensed the catalogues of 98 publishers.

Sponsored
Sponsored

When I first subscribed to Spotify, I was not spending $120 per year on recordings. I was listening to my own library and YouTube-ing it. When Spotify figured classical music out, I subscribed because of the freedom to explore.

The same thing can be said of nkoda. The monthly subscription is $9.99. Have I been spending $120 per year on sheet music? No. Have I donated my Ring Cycle scores because I was tired of watching them collecting dust as I’ve delayed listening to the entire thing in one day year after year? Yes.

My first test of nkoda was Verdi’s Aida since I’m singing in it at San Diego Opera this October. I made the score available offline and proceeded to bookmark the chorus scenes so I don’t have to turn 30 pages to get to the next section. You can see the chorus scenes on the right hand slider. I put each scene in its own color.

The only issue I can see with using nkoda at the Aida rehearsals is if the company uses the G. Schirmer edition as opposed to the Ricordi edition. It appears as though Schirmer isn’t onboard with nkoda at this point.

What I find most interesting about nkoda is that it provides equality of access/opportunity. Equality of opportunity is a big deal. It is the foundation of any egalitarian society. Companies such as nkoda succeed in accelerating equality of opportunity more effectively than any government.

In 1791 Benjamin Franklin was quoting The Declaration of Independence to Thomas Jefferson regarding African-Americans. It wasn’t until the 1960s that African-Americans received equal status on paper. The equality of the status wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on because of the way the pre-internet culture functioned.

Say what you want about Amazon, but Amazon has never followed someone around the store suspecting they are a thief based on the color of their skin or their gender. With nkoda, there are no looks of disapproval at the sheet music store if a kid doesn’t look like the right type of customer. There is no aura of arrogance toward those who are uninitiated into the culture of music.

We can look at nkoda as the next step in the demise of print media but we can also look at it as another step toward an egalitarian culture based on equality of opportunity.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego beaches not that nice to dogs

Bacteria and seawater itself not that great
Aida page from nkoda
Aida page from nkoda

While I generally embrace digital technology, I don’t consider myself to be an app guy. I don’t follow the top app charts in the App Store or play any games on my phone or iPad. I’ll admit to having played some Clash of Clans back in 2016 when my then 10-year-old son was into it.

I have my app habits such as Spoify, YouTube, social media — you know, the standards. However, last week I came across an app which I might end up using daily, depending on my musical practice habits.

The app is called nkoda (no upper case “n”) and it is, for lack of a better description, the Netflix or Spotify of sheet music. The London-based startup was founded in June of 2018 and has licensed the catalogues of 98 publishers.

Sponsored
Sponsored

When I first subscribed to Spotify, I was not spending $120 per year on recordings. I was listening to my own library and YouTube-ing it. When Spotify figured classical music out, I subscribed because of the freedom to explore.

The same thing can be said of nkoda. The monthly subscription is $9.99. Have I been spending $120 per year on sheet music? No. Have I donated my Ring Cycle scores because I was tired of watching them collecting dust as I’ve delayed listening to the entire thing in one day year after year? Yes.

My first test of nkoda was Verdi’s Aida since I’m singing in it at San Diego Opera this October. I made the score available offline and proceeded to bookmark the chorus scenes so I don’t have to turn 30 pages to get to the next section. You can see the chorus scenes on the right hand slider. I put each scene in its own color.

The only issue I can see with using nkoda at the Aida rehearsals is if the company uses the G. Schirmer edition as opposed to the Ricordi edition. It appears as though Schirmer isn’t onboard with nkoda at this point.

What I find most interesting about nkoda is that it provides equality of access/opportunity. Equality of opportunity is a big deal. It is the foundation of any egalitarian society. Companies such as nkoda succeed in accelerating equality of opportunity more effectively than any government.

In 1791 Benjamin Franklin was quoting The Declaration of Independence to Thomas Jefferson regarding African-Americans. It wasn’t until the 1960s that African-Americans received equal status on paper. The equality of the status wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on because of the way the pre-internet culture functioned.

Say what you want about Amazon, but Amazon has never followed someone around the store suspecting they are a thief based on the color of their skin or their gender. With nkoda, there are no looks of disapproval at the sheet music store if a kid doesn’t look like the right type of customer. There is no aura of arrogance toward those who are uninitiated into the culture of music.

We can look at nkoda as the next step in the demise of print media but we can also look at it as another step toward an egalitarian culture based on equality of opportunity.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Bringing Order to the Christmas Chaos

There is a sense of grandeur in Messiah that period performance mavens miss.
Next Article

Operatic Gender Wars

Are there any operas with all-female choruses?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader